UK govt and Bill Gates pledge to end malaria

Bill Gates looks on a tour with Britain's Chancellor George Osborne (L) to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, Britain (Reuters)

The British government and billionaire Bill Gates have pledged STG3 billion (NZ$6.58 billion) to help end deaths from malaria in the next 15 years, describing it as the "world's deadliest killer".

British Chancellor George Osborne and the Microsoft founder said the money would help ramp up efforts to fight the mosquito-borne disease, which killed about 438,000 people last year and infected more than 210 million people, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Mr Osborne and Mr Gates said the disease kills a child every minute.

"When it comes to human tragedy, no creature comes close to the devastation caused by the mosquito," they wrote in a joint article in Britain's The Times newspaper.

"We both believe that a malaria-free world has to be one of the highest global health priorities."

Britain will invest STG500 million a year over the next five years in the joint fund, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $US200 million this year, with similar annual donations to follow.

Between 2000 and 2015, malaria deaths fell by 60 percent globally, and the WHO has set a target to reduce the number of malaria cases and deaths by at least 90 percent by 2030.

But growing resistance to insecticides and malaria treatments threaten to roll back these gains.

In November, the government and the Gates Foundation announced a new STG1 billion fund for a range of diseases - including malaria - called the Ross Fund.

The commitment announced on Monday also delivers on a pledge first made by Mr Osborne on a visit to Uganda in 2007 to spend STG500 million a year battling malaria.